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1860 Great Meteor shower... Fireball meteors...
1860 Great Meteor shower... Fireball meteors...
Item # 720229
July 23, 1860
NEW YORK TRIBUNE, July 23, 1860
* The Great Meteor Procession of 1860
* Earth-grazing Fireball meteors
* Astronomical phenomenon event
Pages 6 & 7 has an article headed: "The Meteor Of Friday Night" Text takes up almost 3 full columns.
Complete in 8 pages, a little spine wear, nice condition.
AI notes: The Great Meteor Procession of July 20, 1860, was a rare and spectacular astronomical event observed across the northeastern United States, in which a series of bright fireball meteors traveled along the same path in the sky, breaking apart as they entered Earth's atmosphere—a phenomenon known as a meteor procession. Unlike ordinary meteor showers that radiate from a single point, this procession featured multiple luminous objects moving in unison, creating a striking spectacle that captured the attention of the public. The event was recorded in contemporary newspapers and inspired cultural responses, most notably Walt Whitman’s poem Year of Meteors, 1859–60, which vividly describes “balls of unearthly light” crossing the heavens, and artist Frederic Edwin Church’s painting The Meteor of 1860, which depicted the fireballs illuminating the Catskill Mountains. Modern astronomers, including Donald Olson and his team, have studied these accounts to confirm the unusual Earth-grazing trajectory of the meteors, making the 1860 procession one of the few historically documented events of its kind and a significant occurrence in the study of meteoric phenomena.
Category: Pre-Civil War
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